


Dry

by Lady Lecter (RoNask)



Category: Hannibal Lecter Tetralogy - Thomas Harris, The X-Files
Genre: Angst, F/M, Implied Clannibal, Implied Sculder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-14
Updated: 2018-02-14
Packaged: 2019-03-18 02:16:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13672185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoNask/pseuds/Lady%20Lecter
Summary: A dry lake has nothing but sand.





	Dry

He banged the car door closed with more force than he had intended, the sound resonates all over the parking lot. Luckily, it is late and few people saw the tantrum he just threw.   
The knocking on the car window startled him.  
Mulder’s eyes found the woman’s figure bent, looking at him with a small smile on her lips.  
“Bad day?” she asked through the window.  
He nodded and bent to open the door for her, she got into the passenger seat. “Hey. Hope I didn’t scare you.”  
“I don’t scare easily and it was not like you Scully were discreet. Don’t worry, I was the only one who saw it. What happens in the basement, stays in the basement.”  
“Thanks”  
“Will she be okay?” he can see the concern in Starling’s friendly expression. She liked Scully and she liked him, they were basement colleagues, the FBI’s most unwanted trio. At least, he had Scully, Starling was on her own most of the time.  
“Yeah…”  
Starling’s eyes met his.   
Like Scully, Starling could look badass without looking tomboy. Lately, however, she had changed. Or rather her clothing did. It was just a little but enough to show.   
Since he knew her she wore nice shoes but now she carried herself differently, she changed in details, details that made her look fancier. You wouldn’t notice if you weren’t paying attention.  
“You okay?” Mulder questioned facing forward. One of the things that had changed was the intensity of her gaze, she had always looked like a big cat watching you, now she barely looked like herself.  
“Yeah…” she flat out lied relaxing into the seat, facing the windshield.  
“Too much work?”  
“Too little” she confessed.  
Starling worked to keep herself exhausted, her mind busy,... Her lambs silent.  
Something had shifted. A man was dead in Florence and now she wished she had a lot more to do, things to distract herself with. There were way too many thoughts in her mind, too many possibilities. Having some real work to do was good but some cases she had hoped to stay away from, some things she wasn’t wanting to face just yet.  
A whisper in her mind made her close her eyes for a moment, a voice that had been haunting her for more time than she was willing to admit.  
“You should take a vacation” she joked and Mulder smiled.  
“I take a vacation the section is closed before I can say ‘Unidentified Flying Object’” he said and she smiled. “The x files need me and they need Scully.”  
“You’ll get through it” she wasn’t talking about the files anymore and he knew it. “Are the two of you…?”  
“No”  
“Hm”  
“Let’s just hope I didn’t really royally fuck this up this time”  
“I’ll be cheering for you”  
Mulder grinned and faced her, found her smiling back.  
He caught himself studying her face, saw curiosity in her eyes and was sure he had some of it on his own. He didn’t see her eyes go dead nor the smile leave her lips before they kissed.  
Starling hesitated before responding, before closing her eyes and willing herself to give in.  
It wasn’t slow nor gentle, not even hard, actually, the kiss felt lost, hollow. Starling wanted to cry for a moment, felt a scream in her throat wanting to come out but fought it to submission. She felt Mulder tense and knew he was just as disappointed as she was, not for the kiss was but for what it wasn’t.  
There was no passion, no relief. Hollow was the best way to define it, they were not meant to be doing that.  
They never knew who broke the kiss, it didn’t matter. They both leaned back against the car seat and went silent.  
“Will you be okay?” Starling breaks the silence.  
“Yeah, will you?”  
She nodded quickly. “Sure”  
They could be great liars when the other part chose to ignore their lies.  
“I’ll see you around?” Mulder asked.  
“Yeah,” Starling said and left the car quickly.  
He didn’t turn to watch her go back to her basement, she didn’t look back to watch him drive away.  
Enough lies told for a night, too many suffocated feelings for a decade, better leave it as it was and just keep moving forward.  
They both hoped they’d find the best way to do it.  
They would never talk about the kiss, there was nothing to be told.  
A dry lake has merely sand, nothing else.


End file.
